Can we keep him
by paper-princess-94
Summary: Ellis makes an unlikely friend who could hold the clue to beating the infected once and for all


**A/N **I've been working on this for literally months and I've finally finished :) Quite proud of this. It's my first little Left4Dead fic so I hope you guys enjoy it :D

Also, I'm not sure whether to continue this or leave it as a oneshot, at the moment it could go either way so any feedback on what you think should happen with this story would be greatly appreciated :D

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><p>Ellis swung his golf club, straight into the face of the approaching infected.<p>

"Fore!" His expression was only dimly lit in the failing streetlights but his teammates could still make out the grin which split its way across his face as he mowed through the common infected which attempted to crowd around them.

"Ellis, sweetie, could you at least try to take this seriously? It's not like we're playing some game here…" Rochelle had tried to get the young southerner to act more maturely more times than she was willing to keep count of, but if she was honest with herself she had to admit that it made her happy to see Ellis enjoying himself. At least some good had come out of this damned infection.

Sadly, Nick wasn't really in the same frame of mind as Rochelle when it came to letting Ellis enjoy himself, mostly because it was usually him who ended up saving the kid's behind from whatever mutated nasty decided to sneak up on him whilst he was having his "fun".

"Rochelle, me and Coach are gonna go and scout ahead a bit. Can you keep an eye on captain invincible over there?" He motioned to where Ellis had managed to take out the zombies which crowded around him, only for another small wave to begin its decent.

"Okay, just stay in shouting distance and keep an ear out." She answered nodding them on as she kept an eye on Ellis as he cocked his shotgun and backed up slightly to give himself space. She couldn't help but laugh when he pressed a loud kiss to the side of the gun before proclaiming that he "Had some serious killin' to do."

Eventually Ellis backed up from the pile of dead infected, wiping a splash of blood off his face as he turned to Rochelle. "Hey Ro, I think that's all of 'em."

"I reckon it probably is. Let's go meet up with the others, they're just 'round the corner." They turned to walk away but a sound dragged Ellis's attention towards an alley tucked away at the side of the road.

"Ro? I think there's somethin' down there." Rochelle turned around to face the younger boy, listening carefully for any of the tell-tale signs of the special infected. It _almost_ sounded like a hunter, but then again it also sounded like it was crying. Rochelle prayed that they hadn't discovered some new super-witch or something. That was the last thing they needed at the moment…

"Flashlights off, Ellis, just in case." The boy nodded an affirmative to her before taking the lead down the alleyway, shotgun at the ready.

"Hey Ro, I think I see somethin'." Ellis whispered as he squinted into the dark. "It definitely _looks _like a hunter. But I ain't ever seen a hunter that small before." He moved to the side a bit to let Rochelle see.

"Hmm, this is weird. I don't know whether I like this, Ellis. I think we should get out of here." She kept her eyes trained on the hunched over figure hidden in the corner made by the wall of the alley and a dumpster. She almost turned and walked away when she caught a whisper of the creature's voice.

It was sobbing to itself, but not in the same way as a witch. If it wasn't for the sporadic growls it would almost sound like a _kid_ crying. She swallowed a lump in her throat as she shared a look with Ellis. They both took steps forward, moving slowly towards the small hunter in the hopes that they wouldn't spook it.

They had no such luck. Ellis, his attention focused solely on the infected before them, tripped over an empty can which had been discarded in the alley. He fell face first onto the concrete with a thump. A gasp from behind him had him scrambling to stand, but he only made it to a sitting position before he caught sight of the creature before him.

Two bright yellow eyes peered out at him from the shadow made by the dark blue hood. The little skin which was on show was a pale grey colour, the claws on its hands bloody as it used them to crawl backwards slightly- cowering away from the two survivors. There was a slash across the hunter's chest and abdomen, stretching from his left shoulder to his right hip; it wasn't bleeding enough to be life-threatening, but it looked painful.

Ellis had landed less than two metres away from where the hunter cowered and had managed to get a look at its face. It looked young, probably only in its early teens when it turned. Ellis was confused as he shifted backwards to stand beside Rochelle, they'd never seen such a young infected before. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen any children or teenagers at all since the infection had first hit. He guessed that it just wasn't really something you thought about when you discovered zombies in your kitchen but now that it had come to his attention it was bugging him.

He gestured to Rochelle, silently telling her to go and get Nick and Coach. She nodded and slipped away, making as little noise as possible so she wouldn't spook the hunter. Once he heard Rochelle leave the alley Ellis dropped into a crouch, making himself seem less threatening. He dropped his shotgun but kept a hold on his pistol; if he didn't then he knew he'd get an earful from Nick later.

He moved forward slowly, putting one foot in front of the other awkwardly as he tried not to fall over and scare the hunter even more. As he got too close he heard a soft growl from the infected in front of him. It was a warning growl, but he didn't think it sounded overtly threatening; it was more like a sound of discomfort.

"Okay, okay, easy. I'm not gunna hurt ya." He held out one hand hoping he could lure the hunter out of its corner. "Come on, kid. If y'all are still sat like that when Nick gets here he ain't gonna think twice 'bout shootin' ya." The hunter seemed to understand him as it moved slightly out of the corner in Ellis's direction. "Just a li'l bit more, Buddy. Don't be scared." The hunter kept walking, keeping its body close to the ground like a beaten dog.

It finally stopped once it was just out of arm's reach, it kept its head down so that its hood would cover most of its face as Ellis tried to work out how bad its injuries were. The slash on its chest wasn't dangerously deep so he wasn't too worried about that; he'd also noted a cut across the hunter's left eye which looked fairly recent. Other than that there weren't any obvious wounds, but he had noticed the little hunter had been limping as he walked down the alley so there was a possibility that he'd hurt at least one of his legs.

He could hear approaching footsteps from behind him and just prayed that the others had enough sense not to run right up to them. He sent up a tiny thanks when he heard them stop near the entrance to the alley. "Stay here for a second, Buddy. I'll be right back." He took a few steps back whilst still crouched then turned and walked to the others.

"Ellis, you idiot, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Nick was the first to speak as Ellis reached them.

"Well I couldn't just kill him when he was cowerin' like that, could I?" Ellis answered in a hushed voice, angry that Nick had barely bothered to lower his voice at all.

"Why the hell not? It's one of them; we kill them, no questions asked. That's what's kept us alive this long."

"But he didn't attack; there's something different about him! Until we find out what you're not killing him."

Ellis swore he heard Nick growl. "Overalls, stop being so damn ridiculous! It's a Hunter; it'll tear our faces off, no questions asked. We should take it down now, whilst it's injured!"

Ellis was shaking his head stubbornly. "I'm not lettin' you kill him. I've been sat with him for ages an' he ain't even scratched me."

"He's probably planning something. Trying to gain our trust and then when we're not looking he'll slit our throats and call his buddies over to eat our guts." Nick argued grimly.

Rochelle grimaced at the thought but was still sure to add her input. "But Nick, by your logic you're saying that he's more intelligent than the other infected. Surely we should at least look into it? You never know, he might be the key to solving this whole mess and we would never know because you were too eager to blow his brains out!"

"But-" Nick started before being interrupted by Coach.

"I think we should trust 'em, Nick. Ro' makes a good point and the boy seems so sure." Coach was nodding self-assuredly at the younger man and Nick could do nothing but groan in response and concede that he had a point. But that didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

"Hmph, fine." He crossed his arms over his chest with a pistol hanging from each hand, fully prepared to defend himself if things turned ugly. "But I'm not going near him. This is your problem, Ellis, you fix it."

"I wouldn't let you near 'im anyway. You'd prob'ly just shoot 'im!" Ellis turned away from the other man and began to approach the hunter once again.

He made sure to keep his body as close to the ground as possible as he shifted towards the infected boy, stopping a small distance away to give him a choice about whether to close the gap or not.

After a few moments of silence the boy shuffled forwards slightly- not fully closing the gap between them, but moving close enough that if he wanted to Ellis could reach out and touch him. He had to fight off the urge to flee, after so much time surrounded by the infected he knew exactly what they were capable of. His natural instinct was to get away from him, but he stubbornly battled with his common sense as he watched the hunter shifting uncomfortably before him.

With a sigh Ellis sat down so that his legs were crossed, the pill bottle in his pocket dug uncomfortably into his thigh in this position, but his knees were starting to hurt after crouching for so long. He could tell that his sudden movement had surprised the hunter, but he was glad that –other than flinching slightly- he hadn't even reacted. Ellis placed his pistol on the ground beside his right knee and reached for the pills in his pocket.

Two pills fell out of the almost-empty bottle into his hand as he shook it slightly before putting the bottle on the ground to join his gun. He glanced up at the hunter for a moment and couldn't help but laugh at the way he was looking at him- with his head cocked to the side like that and one clawed-hand raised before him, the hunter looked less like a terrifying monster and more like a puppy begging for a treat.

"Here, Buddy. These should make you feel a bit better." He held out the pills, holding his hand flat as you would if you were feeding an animal in a petting zoo. He was pleasantly surprised when the hunter reached out and took them gently, careful not to scratch Ellis with his long claws. He lifted his hand to his mouth and dropped the pills in, making a face as he swallowed.

Apparently he was still human enough to understand what the pills were and how to take them, maybe it was like Rochelle had said and he really did hold some clue as to how to fight this disease.

Ellis watched the hunter carefully as the pills began to take effect; his hands unclenched and his posture relax slightly. Ellis noticed that he sat up slightly straighter than before- if you ignored the god-awful smell, the blood-tipped claws and the overall greyness of the boy he could almost have passed for human.

He doubted it would be enough for Nick to trust the teenager, but it should convince him that he wasn't going to rip his entrails out the moment he saw him.

Keeping one eye on the hunter he moved back to the others, after reassuring the infected that he'd be back. As he approached them he allowed himself a moment of smugness at the look on Nick's face.

Before Nick could think of something to say Rochelle cut in, "Ellis, that was amazing! How did you do that?" Genuine surprise, and what Ellis thought may have even been pride, snuck into the woman's voice and the mechanic felt his confidence bolstered by her words.

"It was nothin'…" He shrugged shyly, scratching the back of his head as he fished in his mind for an answer. "I didn't really do anything. Like I said before, he's still pretty much human… I mean, if you can get past all the zombieness on the outside…"

"It's the zombieness that I'm worried about, Overalls. He can't be trusted; we have no idea whether he's even really like this. For all we know he could turn back into a normal infected any minute now." Nick's words made Ellis's shoulders sag but he refused to give up.

"We can't just leave him here, he's just a kid! Underneath, he's just a scared li'l kid that's lost his ma and all his friends and has turned into this **thing** that he doesn't understand. We can't leave him just because he's a little different!" He looked around at the doubtful faces and frowned. He knew that Rochelle would probably back him up, but he'd have to talk Coach into it or he had no chance. He wouldn't even bother with Nick, it'd be like trying to talk a brick wall into being a tree- it just wasn't gonna happen.

"Ellis, Honey, we know how you feel, but how do we know that we can trust him? He is a hunter, after all…" Rochelle's sad expression told him everything- she wanted to help, but he'd need to win Coach over first. The older man always did what was best for the group, if he said no then so would Ro.

"Leaving him behind would be just as bad as leaving one of us behind back on the roof of that hotel! Actually it would be worse! He's a kid, an injured and scared kid! How can you leave him behind?" Rochelle and Coach looked like they were turning to his side, whilst Nick just stood there muttering about how he wished they **had** left a _certain someone_ on the roof of the hotel.

"Look, just wait here. I'll bring him over and you can see for yourself that he's still human inside." Ellis scampered off before the sounds of the others' protests could reach him.

He didn't bother crouching as he approached the hunter this time and was glad to see that he was still sat quietly waiting for his return. As he approached the boy looked up from where he was seated and made a soft, questioning growl in the back of his throat.

"It's fine, I'll convince them and then you can come with us." This elicited another soft growl from the infected teenager followed by a swift nod which made Ellis grin. "That's the spirit, Buddy! Now come with me, I've got some people for you to meet." He turned and left, not bothering to check whether the hunter was following him and just trusting the other to come with him.

Sure enough, after a few seconds he heard shuffling footsteps behind him and smiled.

When they reached the end of the alley where the others waited it felt as though everyone was holding their breath simultaneously, waiting for something terrible to happen. The boy stayed close to Ellis, his belly nearly dragging along the floor with the effort to show his harmlessness to the people who stood before him with guns.

Ellis could almost sense the boy beginning to panic as the dull metal of the group's firearms came into view. He gestured to the others to put them away and felt a little wave of victory when all but Nick placed their weapons back into pockets or makeshift holsters. The mechanic even managed to get Nick to lower his guns from where they were pointed at the hunter's head; although it took a good thirty seconds of wild gesturing and a few choice hand gestures which would have gotten him a clout around the ear had he still been living at home to do it.

Ellis heard an audible gasp from Coach when he saw the boy; honestly Ellis wasn't surprised the man was shocked, after all he probably used to teach kids the same age as the kid. Ellis himself was finding it hard not to think about the fates of some of his own younger family members after seeing what happened to the kid who was currently hiding behind him. After all, if this could happen to one kid, then who was to say that there wasn't thousands of kids out there who had been infected too?

Maybe they were all just hiding out somewhere? After all, it must be scary waking up one morning and finding that you have a sudden craving for human flesh…

"Ellis, are you sure this is safe? He looks a bit nervous…" Rochelle's anxious voice broke through his thoughts and he found himself nodding.

"He's fine so long as he don't feel threatened by us." He shot a very pointed look at Nick, "If ya catch my drift."

"Maybe I would 'catch your drift' if you learnt how to speak like a human being. No wonder you get along so well with that thing, you probably have about the same brain capacity..." Nick placed his weapons back in their holsters and turned away. "Of course, being told you have the intelligence of a hunter is probably a compliment for you, right Ellis?"

A growl from behind him made Nick turn around and he was met by the sight of the hunter-boy standing between him and Ellis, obviously guarding the mechanic. The hunter's figurative hackles were raised as he stood flexing his hands slowly, making sure to catch the light on his blood-soaked claws as he did so. Nick felt a shiver of fear run up his spine but he refused to show it on the outside.

"See, I told you it was dangerous." He pointed at the hunter who still growled menacingly at him from in front of Ellis.

Ellis knelt down, tentatively placing a hand on the hunter's shoulder. The infected boy whipped around fast enough to make Ellis jump, but the pre-emptive growl which hung from his lips stopped suddenly when he saw that it was only Ellis. The mechanic fought his every instinct and forced his body to stay put as he looked into bright yellow eyes which shone at him earnestly.

"Thanks for protecting me bud, but you can't be doin' that." The hunter tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Look, Nick's an asshole," Sounds of protest came from Nick but were quickly shushed by Rochelle. "But he's a part of the team. You can't be threatening him like that or they ain't never gonna trust you." The hunter looked sad for a moment before dropping his head in defeat. "I really do 'preciate you protectin' me though, just don't worry about Nick, I can look after myself when it comes to him." He winked at the hunter and the boy made what Ellis assumed constituted a grin for a hunter.

"There we go buddy, that's what I like to see." Ellis stood back up and faced the others. "He understands not to fight with you guys now; so long as Nick doesn't be too much of an asshole we should be good." He looked at the others hopefully, "So? What do you think?"

"Look boy, I don't know. Honestly, I don't even know what to make of all this. But the kid obviously has enough human-ness left to communicate with people and keep himself under at least partial control." He looked around at the others; Rochelle was nodding happily and Nick was ignoring everyone. "I guess we could let him tag along for a little while. Just a couple'a days, until we're sure whether it's a good idea or not."

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><p>Ellis was chatting happily at his new friend as they made their way to the safe house Coach and Nick had found earlier. The others trailed behind them slightly, keeping an eye out for any wandering infected which may have escaped Ellis's earlier slaughter.<p>

"You know, I feel kind of sorry for the kid." Nick said quietly.

"Oh, did you finally come over to our side?" Rochelle mocked whilst sticking her tongue out.

"No, I mean I feel sorry for him because he probably hasn't listened to anyone speak to him since this whole mess started and he has the bad luck to be found by Ellis. The poor kid's going to get an overload of nonsense from Ellis's stories."

"Ha, I don't know. It must be nice to have someone spending that much time making you feel at home after something like that happens." Rochelle smiled sadly at the fate of the teenager. "I'm proud of him."

"Who, the hunter?"

"No, Ellis. Being able to stay so positive in this mess, it's amazing what that boy's capable of."

"I still think he's just oblivious…" Nick's words earned him a gentle knock on the head from the butt of Rochelle's pistol.

"Shut up, Nick."


End file.
